Matt Murray, John Gibson square off in nets for Team North America

One of the perks of winning a championship in the NHL is to spend a day with the Stanley Cup.

But Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray jokes that he was shortchanged when the iconic trophy visited his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ont., on July 19.

“It didn’t arrive until 11 o’clock,” said Murray, who was mobbed by fans at a public reception at a shopping centre before a smaller private gathering that included the obligatory sip of champagne from the Cup.

“Some of the veterans had the Cup for two days, but rookies like me don’t even get a full day,” said Murray.

Murray has played only 13 regular-season games in the NHL, but he channelled Canadiens great Ken Dryden when he received an opportunity in the playoffs. He replaced veteran Marc-André Fleury and led the Penguins to the Cup with a 15-6 record, a 2.08 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.

Murray is battling Anaheim’s John Gibson for the starting job on Team North America in the coming World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. Murray is expected to get the start Thursday in an exhibition game against Team Europe at the Vidéotron Centre in Quebec City (8 p.m., Sportsnet, TVA Sports) with Gibson in the nets for the rematch Sunday at the Bell Centre. The goalie with the best performance will earn the starting role.

Team North America head coach Todd McLellan said he was aware of each goalie’s accomplishments to date, but he agreed with Murray that it made sense to go with a goaltender who has the hot hand.

Goaltenders and defencemen take longer to develop than forwards and that would suggest that Team North America, an amalgamation of Canadian and U.S. players 23 and younger, is at a disadvantage in this best-on-best showdown.

But McLellan doesn’t see it that way.

“I know one (of our goaltenders) won the Stanley Cup and there’s no more pressure than that, playing well into June,” said McLellan. “Another was tremendous in Anaheim, where he shared the Jennings Trophy and the third played in the world championships and he’s been tremendous.”

Gibson, who shared the starting job in Anaheim with Frederik Andersen, posted a 2.07 GAA, while Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck helped the U.S. win a bronze medal at the 2015 world championships. He had a 7-1 record in that tournament with two shutouts and a 1.37 GAA.

McLellan said he has avoided discussions about experience in the North American dressing room, opting to emphasize the team’s speed and tenacity.

And when he was asked about the young defencemen, he talked positively about the variety of skills they bring to the game.

“There’s puck movers, there’s size and physicality, there’s a shot, there’s some poise,” said Murray. “There’s a degree of familiarity with (Seth) Jones and (Ryan) Murray having played together. There are some nice ingredients that we have to mould together (and) it allows us to pick certain sets for certain games.”

Team North America doesn’t have defencemen at the level of Team Canada’s Drew Doughty or Shea Weber, the newest Canadien who was described by Mike Babcock this week as a man-mountain who “makes your franchise better when he walks in the door.”

“That’s a challenge, but they’re confident enough to be here and they’ve played in the league,” said McLellan. “Aaron Ekblad has played a lot of games in this league, (Jacob) Trouba, Murray, those type of guys and with their club teams some of those are the shutdown guys, playing on the top pairs. It’s not like this is a baptism of fire, these guys have played at a top level.”

“We’re the young guns,” said Ekblad. “We don’t have guys who have played 1,000 games, but we’re all NHL players.”

McLellan said Thursday’s game will be a chance to evaluate his team, but it represents a challenge because little is known about Team Europe, which is composed of European players who are not from Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic or Russia.

“Some of those players were involved in Olympic qualifying and we don’t know who’s played with who and how they will come together,” said McLellan.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.